Arcalis strikes first to the delight of big-spender Wylie and jockey Lee

It is just three years since the software entrepreneur Graham Wylie decided to sink several million pounds into National Hunt racing, and in the four minutes it took to run the Supreme Novice Hurdle here yesterday National Hunt racing paid him back.

Arcalis carried Wylie's colours to a first Festival success, and a first one too for his jockey, Graham Lee. In neither case is there the slightest chance that it will be the last. Wylie is an important and much-admired recruit to jumping, a man for whom the sport is everything and the bottom line is an irrelevance.

His buying policy, as directed by Howard Johnson, his trainer, looks for youth and potential as much as proven talent, and Arcalis gave a hint of what can be expected when his string - now almost 100-strong - fully matures.

Marcel, in the colours of jumping's current champion owner David Johnson, was the favourite yesterday but was off the bridle on the way down the hill and faded to finish 13th. Instead it was the 20-1 chance Arcalis who stalked the pace under a well judged ride and then quickened clear of Wild Passion and Dusky Warbler after the last.

Arcalis won a valuable handicap on the Flat last summer and would have started among the favourites yesterday but for a lacklustre performance at Newbury last month.

"I could have saddled him up myself that day," Wylie said. "He just wasn't himself, but as soon as I saw him tugging at his groom's hands in the paddock today I thought that he might be back to his best.

"I'm more pleased for Howard and for Graham Lee than I am for myself. I have made a big investment in the sport but this is a great thrill and it was stunning to watch the horse at the final fence.

"We bought Arcalis as a hurdler but Howard is now talking about running him in the Ebor Handicap at York in August. But then Howard changes his mind every 10 minutes; that's why my diary is in such a mess."

Looking beyond the next Flat season, Arcalis is generally a 20-1 chance for the 2006 Champion Hurdle, and has certainly proved that a big field at Cheltenham in March brings out the best in him.

If Johnson was disappointed by the showing of Marcel, he had to wait only 35 minutes to see his colours come home in front, as Contraband gave him his second successive victory in the Arkle Trophy, and his fourth in the race in all. War Of Attrition, the 11-4 favourite, was well backed by the Irish but could finish only seventh as Ashley Brook attempted to make all the running.

Paddy Brennan's mount still held every chance at the last but Contraband was stronger up the hill and was a worthy winner, despite crossing Ashley Brook on the run-in which prompted a stewards' inquiry.

"That was one of my punts of the week," Johnson said, and some racecourse rumours suggested that his winnings could have amounted to seven figures. "You can tell how much I've had on because of my voice, and Timmy [Murphy] gave him a brilliant ride."

Another significant punt was landed when Spot Thedifference took the inaugural running of the Sporting Index Handicap Chase over the cross-country course in the colours of JP McManus, though he appeared to be struggling to keep up for much of the race.

"It's the story of his life: he never gets going until the party is over," Enda Bolger, his trainer, said. "Last year he was last passing the stands in the Grand National and just stayed on and stayed on."

McManus's main trainer in Britain, Jonjo O'Neill, was close to a Festival success after a desperate, virus-ridden season when Keen Leader, the top weight, finished second to Francois Doumen's Kelami in the William Hill Trophy.

"He jumped well and ran all the way to the line," O'Neill said. "but I have always maintained that he was a good horse and at least this shows that I don't always tell lies."

Next time out

Manorson

The stiff track was too testing for Manorson in yesterday's opening Supreme Novices but he was up with the pace and jumped well before weakening badly on the home turn. He is in Friday's County Hurdle but the big handicap on Grand National day over the sharper Aintree track looks the race for him.